1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a service processing apparatus as well as a service processing method in which a number of service processing apparatuses perform processing using distributed functions in cooperation and storage media having computer readable programs stored thereon and programs thereof.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, a service processing system of this type tends to have a plurality of functions such as a printing function from a personal computer, a scanner function of taking a paper manuscript into a personal computer and a facsimile function of implementing facsimile transmission in addition to a function of implementing photocopying from a paper manuscript due to, for example, enhancement in performance in a photocopier as a device.
Moreover, the functions to be provided have been widened to cover a variety of types such as a function of implementing image processing to implement format conversion, a mailing function of transmitting electric mail and an OCR function of implementing character recognition.
In addition, the above described functions are not processed not only by photocopiers but also occasionally by a server that is provided separately.
Suppose, for example, as shown in FIG. 20, a photocopier 202, a photocopier 203 and a photocopier 204 are connected to a network 201. The photocopier 202 has a function 204 corresponding with a function A1 as well as a function 205 corresponding with a function A2 while the photocopier 203 has a function 207 corresponding with a function B1.
FIG. 20 is a block diagram of describing an example of an image processing system to which a service processing system of this type is applicable, exemplifying a system where a plurality of image processing apparatuses are configured capable of communication on a network.
Photocopiers, which might be configured thus and connected to a network, could not utilize the respective functions except a dedicated photocopier retaining the respective functions and no cooperation was feasible between photocopiers on the network.
For example, the photocopier 204 had no function and therefore could not utilize any function of the photocopier 202 and the photocopier 203 being present on the same network. Moreover, such an arrangement that brings the functions B1 of the photocopier 203 and the function A2 of the photocopier 202 into cooperation to implement processing serially used to be unfeasible.
Therefore, in recent years, in order to execute a series of a plurality of processing, such a method of configuring a service on a functional unit basis to implement processing on a service unit basis (for example, a Web service and the like) have been being utilized wider and wider and a plurality of functions, that are combined and are brought into cooperation, is being implemented.
Here, a Wev service means a technology of bringing an autonomous application on a network into cooperation with message exchange or that application.
Here, a photocopier 302, a photocopier 303 and a photocopier 304 are connected onto a network 301. The photocopier 302 and the photocopier 303 provide apparatuses on the network with functions that are inherent in them as service.
That is, the photocopier 302 provides two services of a service A1 (service 304) as function and a service A2 (service 305) as function while the photocopier 303 provides a service B1 (service 307) as function. In addition, the photocopiers 302, 303 and 304 respectively have a function capable of determining which apparatuses can execute what kind of service.
Under such circumstances, the photocopier 304 having no function can be made to utilize a function of another photocopier as service, the service A2 of the photocopier 302 can be brought into cooperation after the service B1 of the photocopier 303 has been processed and the like.
In order to realize such cooperated operations, a utilizer used to designate, in advance, order of bringing functions such as scanning, printing and facsimile, etc. into cooperation to prepare an instruction for execution along the order.
However, preparation of an instruction in advance would result in an enormous number of instructions for setting, giving rise to such a problem of requiring a lot of time to look up a target instruction among them.
In order to solve this problem, a technology of authenticating a utilizer and searching for an instruction corresponding with that utilizer based on (authentication) information of the utilizer and authorization information is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-288067.
However, the above described prior art requires preparation of an instruction in advance, and, in a case where a novel function is added, the instruction needs to be prepared all over again, which has been burdening the utilizer.
In addition, also in the case where no novel function is added, the instruction has been prepared in advance, such a slight change as a change in order of execution of functions cannot be dealt with in a flexible fashion.
In addition, in the case where a utilizer designates functions in order without utilizing the above described prior art and without preparing an instruction, an increase in function and service will result in an increase in the amount of their combination to make it difficult for the utilizer to select an appropriate combination, giving rise to a problem.